CORE2 Telepresence Robot

A complete kit to build your own telepresence robot in minutes. It
includes a CORE2 controller (with ESP32), two DC motors with encoders
and wheels, one servo motor, an MPU-9250 inertial measurement unit
(IMU), and an acrylic chassis with an adjustable holder for a small
tablet (not included).

Servo Controller for CORE2

A module for CORE2 that allows you to connect 12 additional RC servos. It communicates with CORE2 using hSensor interface. Maximum of four servo controllers can be connected to one hSensor port - which means you can control up to 102 servos from one CORE2.

"So you would like to build and prototype robotics projects faster? The Husarion CORE2 platform has you covered. It interfaces with DC motors, servos, and other components to let you build sophisticated robots."

A connected computer for rapid robot development

The next industrial revolution is happening right now. New connected devices and robotics are redefining the way work is done. Big business has already realized that the way of the automation and high-tech robot-based manufacturing is the way of the future. Now the same trend is transforming the consumer and services markets. There is no better time to be a robotics engineer and maker - the world needs your bold ideas. You only need tools to make them happen.

What is Husarion CORE2?

Husarion CORE2 is a computer designed for fast prototyping of robotic projects. It interfaces directly with motors, servos, encoders, sensors, so without additional shields you can easily build large variety of robotic of mechatronic projects.

What is Husarion platform?

It’s not only about hardware. Wouldn’t it be great if robotics was as simple as coding a website? Web developers enjoy proven, ready-to-use tools, frameworks, hosting platforms, tutorials, and examples. If only you, the robotics developers, could enjoy the same advantages. It would remove unnecessary work from your shoulders and let you focus on what really matters - the idea, the problem your device will solve and how it will do it.

develop online or offline with Husarion CORE2

That’s the goal that we’ve set for ourselves creating the Husarion platform. We provide you with embedded hardware, preconfigured software, and easy online management. You can start building your first prototypes with LEGOs and iterate them with subsequent 3D-printed or laser-cut versions of mechanics without having to develop hardware and software from scratch. From the very beginning of your project up to mass manufacturing and deployment, you can use the same Husarion solutions every step of the way.

Building advanced robots should be as easy as creating websites. This is the challenge we took on.

Who is Husarion platform for?

Our tools are meant to accompany your robotics project throughout development - from humble beginnings in your garage to fully-fledged development facility and mass manufacturing. It doesn’t matter if you are:

An engineer working in a tech corporation for many years now, seeking to improve processes and machinery to sustain the growth of the business,

A university employee teaching students how to build robotic devices using LEGO Mindstorms,

A group of students working on a robot for robotic contest to make your Alma Mater proud of you,

A designer in a ten-person design studio seeking to quickly test a new device idea, scrap it, and test a new one,

A graduate from Cal Tech determined to build a fresh guacamole maker and commercialize it,

…the Husarion platform will jump-start your robotic project.

Intrigued? Let’s take a look at hardware details that makes it all work.

Hardware Specifications

CORE2 contains popular interfaces for robotic projects, so you can build different robots easily without dozens of shields. Built-in DC motor ports allows you to directly connect up to four motors and process signals from their quadrature encoders in hardware - you don’t waste a CPU processing cycles, because a dedicated timer, one for each encoder, cares to not miss any single “tick”. Powerful libraries for CORE2 use all peripherals and CPU power in efficient way, thanks to a real-time operating system, DMA channels, interrupts - but everything is hidden behind an easy to use API. Interfaces for six servos and an on-board DC/DC converter allows you to select a voltage level for each servo. Lots of GPIOs, communication interfaces, ADC channels, and interrupt pins allow you to connect literally any sensor you can find, especially since CORE2 works with Arduino libraries, as you will see later.

What can I create with Husarion CORE2?

Whether your next robotic idea is a tiny rover that penetrates tunnels, a surveillance drone, or a room-sized 3D printer, the CORE2 can serve as the brains behind it.

CORE2 will accelerate building a large variety of robots in all sorts of appliances. Need further inspirations? How about:

An outdoor, autonomous, self navigating farm robot

Telepresence or autonomous drones with web hosted UI

A connected robot making a fresh sandwiches and ordering missing ingredients

An inspection robot with dynamically selectable autonomous/remote control mode

And we’re sure that you’re already imagining even cooler use cases!

What software is used with CORE2?

Open source, real-time framework

A set of libraries for robots has been in development at Husarion for four years now. They are written to save computing power of CPU and perform low-level real-time functions of robot efficiently. These libraries, named “hFramework”, are based on a real time operating system (RTOS) and use DMA channels and interrupts internally to handle communication interfaces. Need a new PID regulator for your motor working on a separate task in real time? It’s only a few lines of code. We believe in the power of hFramework and we’ve made it open-source:hFramework on GitHub

Powered by ROS

ROS is a great set of tools for building autonomous robots. It’s becoming a standard for new robotic designs. CORE2-ROS controller integrates a dedicated Linux image with ready-to-use ROS packets and libraries that will help you to benefit from the synergy of low-level, real-time tasks realized by CORE2 and high-level tasks realized in a single board computer. Along with CORE-ROS, we’ve prepared a set of tutorials to help you get started with ROS and CORE2. Currently covered topics include:

ROS introduction

creating nodes

simple kinematics for mobile robot

visual object recognition

running ROS on multiple machines

SLAM navigation

All topics can be covered using ROSbot - autonomous robot mobile platform with CORE2-ROS.

There is no easier way to start building your own ROS powered robots!

Arduino compatible

CORE2 works with Arduino libraries! There are Arduino libs for literally any sensor available on the market. You can find them easily on the web and use them directly with CORE2 controller, without having to modify them to work. The Arduino compatibility layer uses the hFramework API, so CORE2 peripherals are used in a very efficient way.

What is the use of Husarion cloud?

It’s a command center for all your Husarion powered robots. With our Cloud you can:

Create the WebUI - a dedicated user interface to allow controlling your robot in real time and streaming the video - thanks to HTML5, CSS and built-in WebRTC support.

Share your robot with different access rights and generate a link to your robot anybody can open.

Develop robot firmware and program robots through a web interface.

Feel safe thanks to a full SSL connection between CORE2 and cloud. Access your robots from a 3rd party apps with a cloud API.

What does the software development process for my robots looks like?

Husarion provides both a cloud-based WebIDE and an offline SDK.

ONLINE: Web IDE at cloud.husarion.com

Want to program your CORE2 two minutes after unboxing? Just connect CORE2 to your account at cloud.husarion.com, open Web IDE, and select one of available examples. Then click the “program” button: your code will be built on our servers and then uploaded over the internet to your CORE2. Nothing simpler!

OFFLINE: SDK + Visual Studio Code

No cloud building - code is built locally on your computer and downloaded via USB cable. And it works on Linux, Mac and Windows.

download the Visual Studio Code

install the Husarion extension

write code and flash CORE2 using USB cable

CORE2 vs. existing robotic boards

CORE2 is the most versatile robot-building platform available on the market. It’s not only affordable, but also powerful:

CORE2

CORE2-ROS

BeagleBone blue

Erle-Brain 3

LEGO Mindstorms EV3

Real-time microcontroller

ARM Cortex-M4 @168MHz 192KB RAM 1MB Flash

ARM Cortex-M4 @168MHz 192KB RAM 1MB Flash

ARM Cortex-M3 @200MHz RAM & Flash shared with board computer

Board computer

ARMv7-A @1.8GHz 2GB RAM 16GB Flash (microSD) (ASUS Tinker Board)

ARM Cortex-A8 @1.2GHz 512MB RAM 4GB on-board Flash + microSD

ARM-8 @1.2 GHz 1GB RAM microSD (Raspberry Pi 3)

ARM-9 @300MHz 64MB RAM 16MB on-board Flash + microSD

Wireless

Wi-fi, Bluetooth \ (ESP32)

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Servo

6x out with selectable voltage level (5/6/7.4/8.6 V)

6x out with selectable voltage level (5/6/7.4/8.6 V)

8x out (6 V)

12 x out (5 V)

DC motor output

4

4

4

4

Quadrature encoder input

4

4

4

4

GPIO

42

42

8

16

UART

4

4

5

1

4

SPI

1

1

1

I2C

3

3

1

2

4 (emulated by software)

CAN

1

1

External ADC input

13

13

4

0

4

External interrupt input

8

8

(no data)

0

0

On-board sensors

IMU, barometer

IMU, barometer, temperature

Price (USD)

89

159

89

210

190

Compare CORE2 to a controller without real-time processing:

Prototyping with Husarion CORE2

Here’re a couple of example prototypes we’ve made using the power of CORE2 and the Husarion platform:

Telepresence robot

Robot with LEGO® MINDSTORMS bricks

Robot with MAKEBLOCK metal elements

5-DOF robotic arm

Autonomous robot platform with LiDAR based on ROS

You’ve got endless possibilities. Some inspirations for your own projects you can find on Husarion profile at hackster.io

Can I get a complete robotic development kit with CORE2?

If you don’t want to deal with your own mechanics and don’t have LEGO® Mindstorms or Makeblock sets, the ROSbot and telepresence kits will help you start with a ready-to-use robot in minutes after unboxing.

CORE2 Telepresence Robot - build your own first-person view robot (self-balancing, thanks to encoders, gyro and accelerometer)! Control it from a web browser, customize its UI or even share with a friend (if you feel like hosting a virtual guest). The kit contains:

CORE2 (with ESP32 Wi-Fi module)

Inertial measurement unit (MPU-9250)

2 x DC motor with encoder

1 x servo motor

Battery pack for three 18650 batteries

acrylic chassis with an adjustable holder for a small tablet

Mechanics are already assembled. The only thing you need to do is attach CORE2 and connect your own tablet with hVideo app.

ROSbot is an open source, mobile robot platform containing:

Digital camera

Laser scanner 360° RPLiDAR A2

Solid aluminum cover

Wi-Fi antenna

Orientation sensor (MPU9250)

2x left & 2x right DC motors with quadrature encoder

CORE2-ROS (with ASUS Tinker Board inside)

Our ROS tutorial is based on this platform. This is the easiest way to start building your own autonomous mobile robots. Mechanics are assembled and ready to use.

Do you have any external modules for CORE2?

We have prepared some add-ons for CORE2/CORE2-ROS:

CORE2brick - connects CORE2 or CORE2-ROS with LEGO® Mindstorms.

CORE2 + CORE2brick is a perfect match for all robotics beginners starting with Mindstorms as well as academics, to a provide closer-to-business platform for educating students. The central component is the shield that provides full compatibility with LEGO® Mindstorms sensors and motors, including current sources and UART or I2C interfaces. The kit also contains cables, battery pack and all mechanical elements needed to connect CORE2 with bricks. CORE2-ROS shown under CORE2brick shield is not included in this add-on.

a battery pack for 3x 18650 Li-Ion

4x LEGO® motor

6x LEGO® sensor

acrylic adapters

cables to connect LEGO® motors and sensors with LEGO® Connector

CORE2block - connects CORE2 or CORE2-ROS with Makeblock system. The metal, screwed mechanicals of Makeblock gives you more robust mechanics than LEGO® bricks.

The main components are adapters for sensors and motors. The electrical interface of Makeblock sensors is similar to CORE2 hSensor, but some pin-swapping is needed, so these adapters do that job.

to CORE2 sensor ports

to Makeblock motors

to CORE2 motor outputs

to Makeblock sensors

Servo controller - allows to connect 12 additional servos to CORE2.

Communicates with CORE2 via hSensor interface. Up to four servo controllers can work on one hSensor port thanks to 2-bit addressing. The step down DC/DC converter with software-controlled output voltage is available on board to simplify power connections - you can supply the servo controller and CORE2 from the same power source.

Servo controller for CORE2

outputs for 12 servos, with selectable output voltage (5V/6 V/7.4 V/8.6 V), 4 A max. output current and with OC and UV protection

status LEDs

jumper for address selection

UART interface

power supply input

Manufacturing Plan

The CORE2 is not our first robotic controller. We’ve been making them for over four years now, and we shipped the crowdfunded RoboCORE as our first product. The CORE2 is a result of our continued iteration and experience, and incorporates a lot of know-how we’ve acquired throughout our journey.

Now we have a final design ready, with complete BOMs fully specified. We’ve negotiated with vendors and distributors and currently all parts are available with a maximum one month lead time. Depending on pre-ordered volumes during the Crowd Supply campaign, we will choose a right contract manufacturer. They can organize all production and start immediately after the supply chain process finishes.

Our priority will be to minimize the time to ship orders to you. We set the shipping dates with safe margins. Having worked with multiple fulfillment centers in the past, we will pick the best, proven ones that will ensure a smooth ordering experience for you.

Risks & Challenges

There is always some risk related to producing hardware in volume, like natural disasters, supply chains problems, and quality assurance. But we’ve done everything possible to reduce risk to a minimum before launching our Crowd Supply campaign. CORE2 is the second generation of our computer for robots that we will send to clients, so we have a lot of experience that helps us to avoid potential problems. CORE2 hardware is tested by our team and beta-testers, and is ready for a mass production. We prepared the Automatic Test Equipment (ATE), that allows us to test and program initial firmware for CORE2 and CORE2-ROS in a short time without a risk of human error.

A development of stable software also takes a lot of time, but everything that we have prepared for CORE2 – libraries, packets, extensions, mobile apps, and cloud platform – has been tested and works stably.The software has already been used by clients around the world.

We also have experience in working with fulfillment companies that helped us before in shipping our products worldwide. Supply chains issues, quality assurance and other potential problems shouldn’t cause a major delay. Nevertheless, we will inform you about any issues, will keep you updated on the campaign, and and will be responsive to your questions. We will challenge every potential issue to bring you quality product within short time.

FAQ

Q: Will it be possible to buy the additional modules after the end of the campaign?

A: Yes, all rewards prepared for this campaign will be available to buy - sooner or later after the campaign. If you need something particular or ASAP - please contact us.